By Russell Slaton The News Correspondent MALAKOFF – Prison ministry is now the name of the game for Bill Glass, a former Baylor football player who was inspired by Billy Graham to preach to the imprisoned. Those facts and others were shared by A.J. Tusberg, who told Malakoff Rotarians Tuesday, July 7 about Behind the

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By Russell Slaton The News Correspondent TRINIDAD – The City of Trinidad has a new police chief. That town’s city council hired Chris Simmons to take over its police department during a special meeting, held Monday, June 22. Simmons started his service as chief on Wednesday, June 24, said Trinidad City Administrator Terri Newhouse. The

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By Russell Slaton The News Correspondent MALAKOFF–Late Thursday night, May 28, westbound State Highway 31 was closed between Trinidad and Malakoff by Texas Department of Transportation officials because of water washing over the road. That closure came because Cedar Creek spilled over the northern portion of the highway, which is lower in elevation than its

Malakoff cop involved in Navarro County death had sketchy Dallas past

Ernest Fierro is the off-duty Malakoff police officer involved in the Dec. 11 incident near Corsicana in which William Livezey of Iowa died, the Navarro County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. It turns out that Fierro has a checkered history as a Dallas police officer.

Fierro became a Malakoff officer in August 2013 after serving with the Dallas police and as a Dallas County district attorney’s office investigator, and then as a police officer in Ferris.

The Dallas Morning News reported in 2008 that Fierro was involved in several driving incidents as a Dallas police officer. Also, the paper reported that Fierro was disciplined in 2000 for violating the Dallas Police Department’s off-duty employment policy and working another job the same day he called in sick.

In 2001, an investigation showed that Fierro fled a minor car accident in Northwest Dallas, and soon thereafter, hit a truck and wooden pole, Dallas police said. Automated tracking information showed that Fierro had been in that area, and was recorded as driving at speeds more than 100 mph. The driver of the car involved in that wreck also picked him out of a lineup, but did not pursue prosecution. He received a written reprimand from the second accident.

Fierro, citing injuries from that second accident, told investigators that he did not remember being in the area, and did not recall driving over 100 mph. Fierro eventually was fired from the Dallas Police Department in May 2001. He was later reinstated in October 2001.

In 2005, Fierro got a one-day suspension after a police investigation found that he again left the scene of an accident. He told investigators that he barely bumped the vehicle, that he was responding to the request of another officer for help, and that when he returned to find the vehicle, it wasn’t there.

Later that year, Fierro’s squad car was struck when he pulled his police vehicle into the path of a fleeing auto. Later still, he was accused of using another officer’s name badge number to generate a theft report in which he was listed as the victim.

Fierro resigned on November 7, 2005, while these investigators were taking place. Internal investigators subsequently concluded that he violated the department’s chase policy and filed a false report.

Resigning under investigation usually would have meant that Fierro would have lost his peace officer’s license, but he appealed and state officials allowed him to keep it.

Fierro’s name was released Thursday in response to an open records request filed by the Corsicana Daily Sun. A previous request made by The News was declined.

Not much is known on what happened to Livezey Dec. 11 besides accounts from two deputies
who found him on the side of the road in handcuffs, presumptively from Fierro. Livezey then fell ill, and deputies removed the handcuffs and began CPR on him while awaiting an ambulance. Livezey later died at Navarro Regional Hospital.

The death is still under investigation by the Texas Rangers, and details remain unclear to the public.